I came into the world just after the end of WWII. There was a pressure to understand privilege in terms of duty. It was framed as "success". I wasn't able to succeed in being the kid with the highest marks or the most beautiful or best clothes. But I had a mother who, inspite of all the critics around her, did not give up on sensitive observation. People around her kept saying she was too soft on us kids. That we should be disciplined more. It was a harsh world we came into and frequent punishments would make us tougher. It was a militaristic approach to life. The world is violent and we have to learn how to live in it. We have to fight back. Certain political parties and certain men fume when we concern ourselves with the suffering of the poor, the first nations, people of colour, women.
We have been told we won the war, meaning we didn't succumb to Hitler, but we lost our integrity and have started other wars - most notably, against people. Anyone who is different is viewed with suspicion, any critical look at society is viewed as a threat to our future.
So when a politician pronounces that he will fix things without saying what and how he will fix things, it gives us some comfort and he gets votes, when the breakdown and threat of our future haunts us, its like a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. The less said the better because our thoughts only create division.
There is something missing here. A lot actually. We have learned to win by killing, exploiting and abusing. Yes I know it could be worse, but we have got work to do on ourselves.
We must go beyond finding causes and seek ways in which we can improve the life of all people, in spite of their colour, religion or gender. We have to live together.
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